Riot and Disorder - Orbit the Sun – Part 7

by John Stevenson

Every hour as it hurled through space the supply capsule would wake from its sleep. It would relocate its reference stars and confirm its course, and its receivers would listen for the identification beacon on Earthrise. Once found the direction finder would home in on the strongest signal and then the capsule would sleep again.

  After it had been receiving and processing the signal for some time the small thruster would nudge the capsule fractionally to a new: intercepting, course. It had been doing this for some time when the signal altered. To the capsules electronic brain it was unexpected, nothing in its program had prepared it for such a drastic change. There could only be one possibility; the data was corrupted, and there was an option for corrupt data. The processor began to erase its memory, and then it searched for the first reference star.

  .

  Mathew was reluctant to return to the bridge, even though Jennifer assured him she was okay. He had felt embarrassed bursting in on her as he had, but he needed to make sure she stayed away from Peter at all times, though he didn’t tell her word for word what had passed between him and her supposed husband.

  Peter’s accusation wasn’t without substance, the idea that Matt could just ignore what he had been forced to do had briefly come to his mind: there were few who would suspect, and what would they do once they found out and Earthrise had passed the sun? Obviously they could cause him harm, but to what purpose? They wanted out of the Suns grip by any means, so did it really matter how it was achieved?

  He had even briefly considered venting the remaining fuel, so that it was impossible to change course; but that could end up being suicidal.

  The truth was though that all Matt had to go on was dead reckoning. There was almost nothing that he could rely on to precisely determine where in space they were at any moment, so he didn’t really know how much longer they would suffer: or if the heat would get even more unbearable. It was while he was thinking that an image of Jennifer entered his mind. Vincent’s reference to her, coupled with Peters influence over the mob worried him. Peter was no longer just one of the passengers.

  With a feeling of foreboding Matt had repositioned and reactivated the thrusters for the third time. There had been no sensation but he knew that it had begun outside. Matt wordlessly turned on the seat and looked at Vincent.

  “So were heading away from the sun at last?” Vincent looked at him suspiciously.

  “We’ve started; we may need to make more maneuvers; it has to be incremental, or it could just waste fuel?”

  “I can’t feel anything?” muttered the other man.

  “You have been aboard long enough to know you won’t.”

  Vincent nodded, looking at the data on the screen, and then back towards Matt. “Then you can go back to your chick.” He stood. “Things have changed Matt; nothing personal, it’s just democracy in action.”

  Matt said nothing, as Vincent he strode past him.

  Alone in the seat Matt now returned to his calculations. He was confident they were now leaving the sun at as an acute an angle as they could. He wasn’t happy with that and knew it was the wrong decision, but Peter’s threats had worked. Matt shut off the thrusters so there would be chance of fuel leaking. Soon they would have to burn again: this time to begin the return to Earths orbit. It sounded so simple; break away from the sun cross space and begin following Earth again: it was when he thought quickly, but there was more chance of failure than success, and if they did fail they really would end up being the first humans to travel beyond Mars and into deep space. Suddenly Matt realized it was there: as if conjuring up his imagination he saw in top corner of the screen: a tiny dot, brighter than the stars around it: the Red planet was almost directly ahead.

  Jennifer was making her way to the cafeteria when she encountered Vincent. His face lit up in a stupid grim when he saw her; she had seen that look more times that she wished to remember. She avoided eye contact, but as they drew close he reached out the wall and barred her way with his arm.

  She looked at him blankly “Do you mind?” she said now having to look him in the face.

  “Hi babe.” He grinned. “I’ve got a message from Peter.”

  She knew she should just duck under his arm but she couldn’t. She wasn’t free; she wanted to spit in his face and tell him and her pimp to go to hell, but the words weren’t there. Peter didn’t let go he didn’t give up and she wasn’t strong enough to escape.

  “You know where my cabin is?”

  Suddenly a chill ran through her.

  He didn’t wait for a reply. “Corse you do. I’m off duty in a couple of hours; see you then babe?” He drew back his arm and reached for her head; brushing loose hair back behind her ear. “Don’t keep me waiting babe; I’m really cant wait.”

  Jennifer shivered as she felt his fingers on her flesh.

  His lips formed into a kiss before his leer evaporated. “Peter told me you never left your clients disappointed. Nine on the dot babe, I’d hate to have to tell him I was the first.”

  Suddenly he was gone and she realized she was shaking.